Saturday, 21 March 2015

Like many did up and down the country, I spent a few minutes yesterday at around 09:20 - 09:35 waiting for darkness and impending doom. It didn't happen, and to be honest I was surprised at how light it remained despite the c89% eclipse we had over clear skies in Leicestershire. A few of us were up on the roof car-park at work making good use of welding masks to view the spectacle, just like I did at my old workplace back in 1999 - good enough protection for brief peeks but not for extended viewing. Once the spectacle was over we were back to full sunshine until later in the afternoon when it clouded over which looked good for getting the garden moth traps out.

Sunday, 15 March 2015

Managed to run the garden trap on Thursday and Friday nights, using the 22W synergetic combined with a 20W actinic CFL for a change. Neither night was spectacular, but the first Orthosia spp. of the spring turned up ...

Common Quaker

Hebrew Character

Best moth though was another Oak Beauty - raising hopes that this species could become a spring regular in coming years. Definitely a different individual as the first had a damaged patch to the left forewing.

On Friday I also managed to get home from work early enough to enjoy an hour or so of daylight in the garden - feels like the first time that's happened for months. Pointed the camera at a few bits because I could.

Played in bands, drank some beer, went birding, started twitching, played poker, drank some beer, photographed moths, stopped twitching, watched some football, stopped birding, drank some beer, started birding, and somewhere along the way got married and created three great children. Not necessarily in that order. Please have a look at the first posting to this BLOG for a slightly more detailed introduction to my background.